Tea and sea shells
by Loes-chan
Summary: Sequel to love from the couch! Jane finally got her to agree on a date… but things do not go as planned. Jisbon fluff, because I'm sick of the heavy angst stories. K , regular updates.
1. Chapter 1: Not her cup of tea

**A/N Hi everyone, welcome to the sequel of "Love from the couch"! It's great to be back!  
I don't usually have much time, I'm not the kind of writer that gets a chapter done EVERY day, but you can at least expect a chapter once a week.**  
**  
**

**Oh, for those of you who wonder why Hightower's alive: this takes place before all the nasty Erika and Lorelei stuff happens and when everything isn't so dark all the time... You know, before Jane becomes so stupid.**

Disclaimer: I'm too lazy to type anything more than Nope.

Chapter 1: Her cup of tea

It was a very hot day outside and everyone who was working in the CBI building was simply pissed off. This was supposed to be a holiday, but since murderers didn't take a summer break they had tossed up a coin. The losers had to work for the first month; the winners took over the second month. Now all the losers could do was occasionally throw a longing look outside, where the sun was burning in the sky. Lisbon sat with the others at Jane's desk –it wasn't like he used it anyway- taking a short break. Jane was nowhere in sight. He was probably up in his attic, lazing around. Surprisingly enough Van Pelt took that moment to mention him.

"You know, I haven't seen Jane in a while…"

"Ugh. I've had it with that guy. Seriously, isn't there a rule for consultants to actually do something?" Rigsby growled, before taking a big bite out of his muffin.

"Nope," Cho deadpanned without as much as looking up from his computer screen.

"Well, it wouldn't be so bad if he at least didn't accuse every single suspect of murder." All three let out of deep sigh.

"You know," Lisbon said, lost in thoughts. "He actually is a nice person... Under the whole 'not nice thing', of course." As soon as it left her mouth everything fell silent, and when she looked up she caught everyone in the bullpen staring at her. Apparently Rigsby even dropped his muffin, because his empty hand was halfway to his mouth, frozen in midair. She couldn't believe she had just said that out loud. "Uh... I was just... Just carry on, alright?" She started to gather the files that were laying all over Jane's unused desk in an awkward manner, and escaped to her office as all her employees quickly continued working. Something was really wrong with her lately. Since Jane had asked her out on a date after all the weird buying-a-couch-together stuff, she couldn't control her thoughts anymore. The only damn thing she could think about was HIM. Everything around her reminded her of him.

It completely pissed her off.

Besides, being obsessed with her annoying consultant wasn't even the worst part. The guy was a freaking mind reader. He would probably need five seconds to guess her thoughts, and she would never hear the end of it. Never. There was only one option: she would have to avoid him. Really avoid him. She closed the blinds and shut the door. There. Not to disturb Lisbon.

It was not until five a clock until she dared to come out again for a cup of tea. Not coffee. After her sixth cup that morning she suddenly found herself totally sick of the strong, black liquid. Lisbon found the cupboards in the kitchen almost full with some kind of mango crap tea: Jane's favorite flavor.  
"Here we go again…" she muttered. Seriously, why was everything always about her annoying consultant here? Why couldn't things be about her for once? She was the boss, for heaven's sake! Standing on the tip of her toes, she managed to find a half-empty box of Turkish apple tea in the back. Perfect.

Soon there was a steamy cup of tea almost calling her name, and she couldn't wait to take it with her to her office…  
But not before she wrote her name on the box of tea sachets and defiantly placed it in front of Jane's tea. That'll lteach him. She wasn't sure what exactly he was supposed to learn from that, but at least it would made her feel better. Unfortunately, she didn't get her well-deserved rest, because as soon as she sat down again, Hightower furiously strode in.

Apparently Jane wasn't in the attic at all.

He had gone to the main suspect's house, gone so far as to go behind their back, just because he wanted to question the guy. Hell, the suspect even confessed. But not before Jane had offended everyone in the house, including the neighbors that were just visiting. Three men filed complains. Hightower concluded with the familiar threat to fire Lisbon if this would happen one more time and stormed off again. Teresa was left with her almost cold tea and a miserable feeling.

It was like that stupid man was having a field day or something. He was obviously acting like a toddler, throwing insults at every person he saw? God, why was it always her? She buried her face in her hands.

Xxx

Jane was having a field day. He felt great. Amazing. Superb.

Not only had Lisbon agreed on a date with him yesterday, he also discovered the murderer in ten minutes and he totally had fun making all the other suspects look bad, too. Now he wanted to show off and tell Teresa that he had solved the case while she had been doing stupid paperwork. Maybe then she would finally see how useless doing that stuff was.

But he wanted to grab a cup of tea first. Without looking, he took the first box in his reach… and dropped it in shock. That wasn't his tea. It said Lisbon… Lisbon drunk tea? That was not good. Maybe she wasn't feeling well, or ill, or worse: maybe she was depressed! He had to check her out now! All his plans forgotten, he quickly made his way to her office. There she was, hiding her face in her hands. This was not good.

"Lisbon!" She looked up with a strange look of horror. "Are you okay?" he asked, worried. She mumbled something. "What?"

"I said: Are you freaking kidding me? First you make my life a living hell and now you play oh-so-innocent?"

"Uh," Jane began, but she interrupted him, yelling furiously.

"Have you ANY IDEA how much pain I go through every single day because you can't seem to be NICE to people!" Well, that wasn't really fair.

"As I seem to recall, yelling is not really nice either…"

"Oh, you just try and blame this on me, see what happens!" At this point, everyone in the bullpen was stretching their necks, trying to get a look of the scene that was going on in her office. Jane almost groaned out loud. What had he done this time? He didn't really want her to be mad at her. But his suggestions to make it up to her always made her even angrier, so he just asked: "What do you want me to do?"

"Well, you could start apologizing!"

"Sorry that you're angry because you don't approve of my method of catching murders," he said smoothly, even smiling a little. Then he caught sight of her expression. Uh-oh.

"No!" Teresa yelled, extremely frustrated. "You're supposed to be sorry about DOING something that made me angry!"

"Well, I could hardly apologize for something I'm absolutely not sorry about." That was logical, right? Teresa took a deep breath, shortly closing her eyes.

"Okay, that's it. Our date is cancelled."

"What?" He couldn't believe what she'd just said. "You don't mean that!"

"Try me."

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry! There!" He desperate raised his hands in a gesture of innocence. The brown haired agent glared at him.

"Bite me!" and with that she brushed alongside him, disappearing in the direction of the elevator, leaving him standing in the door opening. All the curious employees quickly averted their heads when she strode by and left. As soon as the doors from the elevator closed, they started to animatedly whisper to each other.

"Did we really hear that?" "They're dating?" "I knew it!" "Oh my god, how scandalous!" "Listen, did you hear about Jane and Lisbon from team 3…"

Jane clenched his teeth together. Great. When Lisbon would return the next morning and find out that everyone knew about their date, she would be totally pissed off again.

"Um... We're not dating!" he yelled to no one in particular, but he could sense from the huffing and giggling that nobody believed him. Just great. Now he had to come up with something as big as a birthday pony or she would hate him forever. And he wanted that date.

**A/N So what do you think?  
It's become impossible for me to keep writing at this point. Why? I just got a kitten! She's called Seven and she's adorable. She's three months old and very energetic… She keeps jumping on my lap or even on my keyboard, looking at me with those cute little eyes... Really, who can resist that? I'll promise I'll post the next chapter tomorrow!**


	2. Chapter 2: Tea party

**A/N You know, I was a little bit depressed because no one seems to like this story.. yet. So I just started writing with no real idea what was going to happen. And guess what? This weird chapter actually made my mad mood lift. Really.**

**:D Tell me what you think about it!**

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters. Maybe the experiences. Sort of.

**Chapter 2: Tea party**

It was ridiculous. Ludicrous, even.

She had friends. Not many, but still. She had brothers. She had colleagues who cared about her. She was healthy and wasn't anywhere near poor. She ought to be content with that.

She should be happy with that.

Except that she wasn't happy.  
She was nowhere near happy.  
Not that she would ever admit it, of course.

Teresa Lisbon was sitting on the couch in her living room, covered in a green blanket. It was stupid, really, since she had looked forward to this moment all day. The entire morning she had done paperwork and hid in her office. She had worked her ass off all afternoon, too, even survived Hightower screaming at her. So the only thing she kept thinking about was how she was going to snuggle up on the couch with a lot of ice cream and with new episodes of her favorite show. It was supposed to be perfect. Lisbon looked at the strawberry flavored ice-cream and pushed the bowl away. Instead of feeling great and relaxed, she felt horrible. Restless.

She felt like she was stuck in a cobweb. Stuck between what everyone expected her to be, how she was supposed to be and who she really was. It made her feel so damn confused. Sometimes, Teresa didn't know how she was supposed to behave around people anymore.

Dealing with all the dead bodies used to fill her with of feeling of justice, contentment even, but now she felt merely empty. Lisbon didn't understand what was wrong with her. For some reason, something huge was missing in her life, but she couldn't understand what it was. After all, she had always been fine before.

Another something: Jane was annoying the hell out of her. After today, she was sure that dating would never work out. He was just so… oblivious and such a pain in the ass.. and too charming for his own good… and totally handsome-

Stop. Where did that word come from?  
See? Teresa told herself. It was all his fault she couldn't really concentrate on anything anymore. When he only so much as looked at her she was about to get a heart attack or something. At night she lay awake, thinking about that kiss… But he kept screwing up, making everybody mad at him. Didn't he understand that she had responsibilities? As much as she hated to yell at him, most of the time he really deserved it.

No. dating was not going to work. They were nothing alike. She knew that cancelling the date really upset him, but it wasn't like she knew how to change herself back anymore.

Not until she found out why she was so _incredibly lonely._

She turned the TV off, getting tired of all the happy faces on the screen and let the blanket slide to the floor when she got up. Maybe some music would help. In the kitchen she had this radio that she usually only turned on when she was going to shower. The CBI agent pushed some of the buttons and turned the sound up. She jumped a little when a loud song suddenly came out of the small device.

_If you're down take it down tonight  
Cause it's always a good time_  
_Woah oh-oh-oh_  
_It's always a good time_

Well, not always, obviously.  
She listened to the cheerful song filling up her very empty room and slowly she managed a smile on a face. Not one of the many strained smiles that she forced on herself all day, but a genuine happy smile. As by a miracle, she immediately felt better.

The song was really easy and catchy, so in no time, Teresa found herself singing along. Yes, she was still lonely and miserable, but maybe she just had to forget that for a while.

Maybe if she believed hard enough, she would actually become happy again.  
Lisbon turned the volume up and started to dance, smiling. Imagining how her life would look like if she could indeed just hop in a cap and go anywhere. Be free. No obligations whatsoever.

She was really disappointed when the song ended. As long as the song lasted, she could pretend and actually really, really feel better. So she grabbed her laptop and downloaded it in no time. After the third time she listened to it, though, there was a soft knock on the door. Teresa almost didn't hear it, but since she was a trained CBI agent, it was almost impossible not to notice.

She quickly turned the volume down and glanced through the peep hole. Her eyebrows flew up when she saw who it was. She swung open the door.  
"What the hell are you doing here?"

**(A/N Guess who it is? XD I wanted to stop here, but decided to continue! :D)**

"I brought you some tea!" Jane said with a big grin. "Your favorite, too!"

She couldn't believe this. After disappearing all day and refusing to apologize, he dared to come to her house? To bring tea?

"Go away, Jane. I don't need any more of your… annoyingness outside of work." She ran a hand through her hair. It was a bit messy because of the dancing and she quickly tried to smoothen it down. Her consultant didn't answer. He just raised both of his eyebrows. "What?"  
"I thought you were angry, or sad, or lonely, but you seem… happy somehow."  
"That surprises you?" Teresa placed her hands in her side. "Can't I be happy outside of work? I'm perfectly fine." She was. Okay, so she wasn't, but he didn't have to know that.  
"So I see…" He managed to slip past her and entered her apartment. Oh great, now she was stuck with him. "What a lovely new painting!"  
"You should go."  
"Oh, and did you repaint that wall?" He purposely ignored her, continuing his inspection of her living room.  
"Jane, listen to me!"  
"Why did you use that color? Green would suit you much better, my dear."  
"Don't call me that! Jane, I want you to go!" Finally he looked up, a little disappointed.  
"But Lisbon…" Oh no, not the puppy dog eyes… Shoot. "I got you some tea!" He dramatically held up the box to emphasize his words. "Look! And that's not all…" He waited, trying to increasing the suspense. "I organized a tea party for you!" For a moment she was just too appalled to respond.

"A what?"

**A/N Don't forget: reviews brighten my entire day! Thank you House, for reviewing just now! **


	3. Chapter 3: Tea leaves

Chapter 3: Tea leaves

**A/N Two reviews… ouch. In this chapter Jane is a little OOC, I think. Sometimes, English is hard for me…  
It's a short chapter this time, publishing every day has its price. A lot of talking this time, though :)  
I wanted to try something and separated all the lines… Let me how this works for you!**

**Now, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: ….You know, I'm not gonna include a disclaimer and see what happens. **

"I organized a tea party for you!" For a moment she was just too appalled to respond. What the hell was_ up _with Jane today? First the whole thing at work, and now this?_  
_  
"A what?"

"Oh, come on Lisbon, you know what a tea party is!"

"Well, yeah, but that doesn't mean.. how the hell did you get that idea, anyway?" Considering that she would never get him to leave, she closed her apartment door behind her.

"Since I noticed that you weren't very happy when you left, I wanted to…cheer you up." And I want you to go on a date with me, so that one day we can buy that couch and I can kiss you every day, he added in his mind.

"I can't have a tea party with you, Jane!" He pouted, handing her the box like it was the most precious thing in the world.

"Why not? I have whole basket with your favorite cookies in my car… I even brought a tea pot, because you probably don't have one." He smiled with a pleading look in his eyes. Lisbon sighed.

"Jane… It's not because I don't want to-"

"Then why?"

"It's already eleven o'clock!" she burst out. "I was going to sleep in about half an hour!" His smile disappeared. Hm. He hadn't thought of that.

"You sure?" he tried, the disappointment shimmering through his voice.

"Yes… I'm sorry Jane, but I'm also not going to forgive you that easily for making my day feel like a living hell." The blonde haired man brushed that aside.

"You will." His confidence annoyed her, but she didn't want to get angry at him again. Frankly, all she wanted to do was turn on her music and dance until it was time to go to sleep. Jane chose exactly that moment to notice the song, that was still softly playing. "Oh, I see. You were dancing to this!" She remained silent for a brief second or so. That told him all that he needed to know. "I thought so. Well, who dances alone nowadays?" Before she could stop him, he turned up the volume and flashed her a grin. "Nice." Teresa sighed and rolled her eyes. When he extended his hand, she wasn't sure she was going to take it… On the other hand, she would never hear the end of it if she didn't. And she danced with him before, which had actually been nice. Really nice.

Hold it there. At that time, had he already been in love with her? That idea made her feel surprisingly happy. No. No no no, she did not love Patrick Jane. He might have kissed her before but she would never fall for him. Not even when he smiled at her like that with his beautiful green eyes and golden hair. Not even when he took her hands like that and spun her around.

Maybe not even when he made her laugh so hard that they had to take a break.

Right. Who was she kidding?  
Teresa Lisbon didn't feel empty or lonely anymore. She felt _alive_.

He spun her around and pulled her against his chest. They were both panting from the dancing and the laughing. She looked up but forgot what she wanted to say when she looked in his eyes. He leaned into her and whispered something in her ear. It took her a while to register what he was saying, but when it did she pulled away abruptly.  
"Jane!" The CBI agent placed her hands in her side.

He managed to take a hold of her wrist, though, and pulled her back.  
"Pleaseee?"

"Well, I'm not going to forgive you. I'm not," she half-heartedly persisted, already knowing she has lost. He wrapped his arms around her, and she gave up. "Fine. I'll still go with you on that date…"

His face lit up, his expression of joy more genuine than ever.  
"Tomorrow. Four o'clock. I'll meet you at a place called… Uncle Joe?" Teresa hesitated, before slowly resting her cheek against the soft material of his three piece suit.

"I love that bar! But of course, you already knew that, did you?" His Cheshire grin told her everything she needed to know. "Do I want to know how you know that?"

"What can I say?" he grinned. "People don't call me a mentalist for nothing." She playfully hit his arm, trying to remove that smile off her face before he would see it.

"You should go now, though."

When he finally had left, Lisbon turned the music off and sat down on her couch. She would never be able to listen to that song without thinking of this day. She didn't really know if this thing was going to work out, if they would ever be together despite their differences. Despite their work, even though there were no real rules whatsoever involving consultants, so dating was allowed. She noticed the box of tea that she'd put on the counter. Maybe, she decided. Maybe things weren't going to be so complicated. Maybe was not a yes. It wasn't a no either. Maybe was exactly good enough. With that thought stuck in her head, she closed up and went to bed.

Xxx

Jane was laying on his back on the covers of his motel bed. He could still feel Teresa's hands in his, hear her laugh, smell her hair. Now there was one thing left to do: he had to make sure she wouldn't hear any the office gossip until they had gone on that date first. Or until it was totally justified, he added contently, before he finally managed to fall asleep.

_I'll reach the sky and feel alive again  
-Vanilla Twilight, Owl city_


	4. Chapter 4: Preparation

Chapter 4 Preparation

**Hi guys,**

**Yeah I know. This story has been on hiatus for a while, but I found a way to access the internet in the town where I stay in Ghana. I´m still not able to update regularly because I´m just too busy, but I´ll try…  
I had a hard time imagining where they would go to on their date… Until my best friend (she doesn't even know the Mentalist) gave me the perfect idea. Oh and as we speak, my beta is roaming around the world, so any mistakes... will be mine. Sorry.**

**Yeah, so, have fun reading!**

Teresa checked her watch for the first time that evening.

Right. Who was she even kidding? It was probably the six hundredth time that she glanced down to see how the second-hand was ticking way too slowly.

It was already ten past four. That officially made him late. Two minutes late could mean he was just making his way to her table, three minutes late could mean he was just leaving his jacket, five minutes could mean he was held up in traffic, eight minutes could mean he bumped into someone, but ten minutes made him, without a doubt, late.

Late!

Jerk.

One more excruciatingly slow minute passed as she finished her drink.  
Exactly sixty seconds later she decided that she wasn't the kind of woman that would wait for hours for a guy that probably wouldn't even apologize anyway. Maybe, she realized with a sharp pang in her chest, he had never been serious about this. This could all have been some kind of joke to him and she had been stupid enough to believe it.

That thought actually hurt. She grabbed her bag and was just about to leave the bar when someone abruptly placed two hands over her eyes and effectively made her freeze her movements.

"Guess who?"

"Hm.. let's see… I guess it's my late consultant who makes a habit out of annoying me," Lisbon told him, secretly feeling really relieved.

"Aww," Jane said, using the opportunity to press her against his chest. Despite herself, Lisbon shivered "You don't mean that."

"Like hell I do," Lisbon responded, but she couldn't make it sound convincing anymore. She could almost _hear_ him grin and that actually pissed her off. "You can let me go now," she added, trying to remove his hands that were still covering her eyes.

"But where's the fun in that?" he whispered in her ear.  
It was time for harsh measures.

"Well, I could always kick you in the groin," Lisbon told him with a satisfied smile. The hands disappeared with the speed of lightning.

Ha.

"You weren't thinking about leaving were you, now?" Jane asked when he noticed her empty glass. "I'm afraid you're stuck with me for the rest of the day."

"Yeah, yeah." She brushed a few strands behind her ear and pretended to look offended. She took her time to observe him as he made a gesture to one of the waiters. He was looking a little different from usual, but she couldn't quit put her finger on it. He was wearing his three piece suit, but without the jacket and his hair was just slightly disheveled. That was not it, though. Maybe it was something about his face…  
Teresa suddenly realized that the strain that had covered this face for so long that it almost had become a permanent feature actually was gone. Gone.  
How… How could it be gone? What happened to him?

"You…" She started, but the waiter interrupted her by asking what she wanted to order. Jane, however, was faster and smoothly ordered a cup of tea for himself and a strawberry smoothie for her.  
Him, ordering for her annoyed her so much that she temporarily forgot about his face looking so carefree.

"Feeling so superior are we? What if I wanted to order something different?"

"Did you?" She hesitated for a moment.

"Well no… but that's not the point!"  
They kept bickering until the waiter brought them their drinks and hastily excused himself again.

"I think you're scaring the employees with your feministic ideas about women ordering for themselves, too, dear. How about you give it a rest and drink your smoothie?" He pushed her glass a bit closer to emphasize the words and she figured she was tired of it anyway.

"Fine. But don't you think I'll forget." The guy might be a mentalist, but she sure as hell could make her own decisions.

"I wouldn't dare," Jane told her in a smooth voice and took a sip of his tea. After a moment he seemed to have an internal debate if the hot drink would suffice, and after a moment he put the cup down, disproval all over his face. Teresa chuckled.

"Don't like it?"

"They don't make it the way it should be," he answered, raising his hands in a gesture that said 'I have no idea how this is possible'. Which the young woman thought was ridiculous, since he always had such high demands on how his tea should be prepared.

"Maybe next time you should make it yourself, than, if it's never good enough anyways." Teresa teased. She took another sip and accidentally dropped one of the napkins that laid on the table.

She stooped to pick it up, but when she put it back on the table, she found that his face was suddenly very close to hers. His voice was almost inaudible when he whispered:  
"It's always fine when you prepare it."

It took her a moment to restore from that one, but she managed to raise one eyebrow and push him away. No need for him to know how his proximity was affecting her.

"Yeah, right, that's why you always complain so much about it." Did he notice the slight wavering in her voice?

"I do not." Guess not.

"Yes you do."

"I do not!"

Xxx

Jane was not pleased. This date was not really going the way he wanted it to be. They were supposed to be getting to know each other better, not fighting all the time. Then again, this is what they were and it felt… familiar, soothing. But not enough. Not anymore.  
After Jane payed the bill, he took her hand and led her outside to his grey Citroën that was parked right out front of the restaurant. He felt how Lisbon wanted to free her hand and walk over to her own car, but he effectively prevented that by pressing her against the side of his car with his body.

"No no no, the date is not over yet. Get in, you are going with me."

"But… My car…"

"Leave it." Without listening to her complaints, he so much as forced her into his car and cheerfully closed the door behind her. After which he quickly got in too and started the engine. He definitely didn't want her to escape yet, not when the best part of the day had yet to come.

"So when are you gonna tell me where we're going?" She asked, faking offense. He could see through her all too well. Instead of letting her know this, however, he pretended to believe it. He certainly didn't want to give away the fact that she gave away so much more than she thought she did by the way she talked or moved.  
So instead, he said:  
"Oh, please don't be mad, Teresa. I just want this day to be special, you know… If you want to go, that's fine too." He watched her eyes soften.

"No, no, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that." Now he made her feel guilty, also not part of the plan. Quick, his mind was telling him. Fix it!

"Soo I was thinking about going to the hot tub first, and maybe we could spent the rest of the night in a motel room together…"

"Jane! You are just messing with me, are you?" He gave her a side glance and was pleased to notice that her fighting spirit had returned.

"Yup."

"So where are we going?" She pressed, nudging him in the side.

"Not saying."

"Come on. Please?"

"Nope."

"Pleaseee?" She gave him a pleading look, which only whidened his grin.

"You can ride that smile all the way to the bank, my dear."

"Jane! I'll get out of the car!"

"Do try."

"Oh, go to hell."


	5. Chapter 5: Relaxing

**Chapter 5: Relaxing**

**Yeah, so, I'm kinda breaking my promise about not updating in a long time, but I didn't think you'd mind… ;)**  
**Right, before I forget: can I ask you guys a favor? I'm working in Ghana as a teacher for the following months, so I have no way at all to watch TM anymore. So I really really wanna know: any updates on Red John? Please let me know!**

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to the mentalist and if I did the show would totally air in Ghana.

Teresa Lisbon was leaning on the edge of Jane's car window, smiling faintly as she watched the sun made its way across the sky. She'd given up on getting him to tell her where they were heading, and instead settled on thinking of the perfect way to get him back for this. She could throw away his tea, that would piss him off. Or hide the lock to his attic… No that wouldn't work, he could pick locks like no other.  
Then what about doing something with his couch? Oh, that certainly was a possibility… But then again, she could use some help with that. Maybe Rigsby would lend a hand…?

"Don't think about it, my dear. I'll always be two steps ahead of you."

Right. The guy was a freaking mentalist.  
What now, confess or play innocent?

"What do you mean?" Innocent it is. Her blonde consultant simply smiled as a response, and she just knew that he could see right through her. "Okay, fine. But I still want to know where we are going," she insisted, placing her hands in her sides. Nothing wrong with a little extra pushing, right?

"No, _you_ just want to be in charge like always."  
Teresa looked at him in disbelieve. He did not actually say that, did he?

Did he?

"_What_ did you say?" It eased her annoyance a little bit to see the realization dawning on his face. The jerk probably didn't mean to say that out loud. Well, good to know what he was thinking for once.  
She did feel the need to defend her, though. "I don't always want to be in charge. That's just ridiculous." Jane kept silent and stared blankly out the windshield, but he was not getting away so easily. "Oh no, now you have to finish what you started. Tell me why I'm wrong." He still didn't utter a word so she threw her boss-look at him and he finally succumbed.

"Well, for starters, I think you're only a boss because you cannot take orders from anyone."

"I… Wait, what?"

"Think about it, Lisbon." He slightly turned in his seat so he could look at her from the corner of his eyes. "If I tell you to drink a cup of tea to calm down, do you do it?"

"No, of course not!"

"See?" he interrupted her.  
Oh, how she wanted to slap that superior smirk off his handsome face. He was feeling so good about himself, wasn't he? Well two could play that game.

"Or maybe you are the one with issues about having superiors, and you just try to cover that up by putting this all on me."

"How about we call it a truce then? I'll admit having problems following orders if you do, too." He offered her his hand.**  
**  
Teresa had to think about that for a moment. It was true that she didn't like following orders from just anybody, especially hypocritical ones like Patrick Jane. And this was supposed to be a fun day, so maybe she should give in, just once. For his sake. It didn't mean she would actually agree. Cause that would be ridiculous. Extremely.

"Fine." She accepted his hand and gave it a firm shake. "Jane!" she added, when he kept looking at her with those intense blue eyes. "Eyes on the road!" She almost invisibly slumped in relief when he adverted his gaze and took a sharp turn to the left, where they reached a small paved road that led into the hills. Suddenly Lisbon could hear a familiar soft splashing sound and she turned her head in surprise.

"Jane! You didn't!" With childlike joy she leaned a bit further out of the car window in anticipation. It had been forever since she went to the beach just to relax. She went over there once or twice in the past year for work, but never for herself. When she was little, she used to go over there a lot with her mother, just the two of them. They would play in the sea, build sandcastles and caught crabs to live in them. They drew mermaids in the sand with long hair made of seaweed, and decorated them with shells. Or they went looking for shark teeth and made it into a competition who could find the biggest one.  
It had been forever since she went to see the ocean.  
Since her mother passed away no one took her anymore and when she got older she didn't felt like going alone anyway.

The CBI agent saw a sparkling blue line appear on the horizon and took a sharp intake of breath. Quickly, she checked from the corner of her eyes if Jane noticed, which ofcourse, he did.

"Excited, are we? Good," he told her, and for once he actually sounded genuine.

"Good," she echoed, smiling to hide her discomfort. She had spent a lot of her days trying to forget the memory of her mother, because there were just too many bad images roaming through her head, haunting her in her dreams. The fights they had had, her face before she got into the taxi; the vehicle that got her killed, the empty spot that she'd left behind. All that Teresa could do was put it behind her and take care of her brothers.

But to have the chance to relive one of the good memories was a chance that she rarely got, let alone doing it with somebody else.  
Patrick annoying Jane of all people.  
How had he known? Even with his mindreading skills, he wasn't that good.  
Was he?

"How did you know?" She asked, turning away from the window with a pang of regret. "How did you know how much being here means to me?" For once, the blonde haired man didn't have a smart reply. He just gave her one of his honest, serious looks. He hesitated a few moments before he started speaking.

"I didn't," he simply answered and she immediately knew it was the truth. "I guessed, based on the shells I noticed on a bookshelf in your apartment. I thought you just liked going to the beach… This has something to do with your mother, hasn't it?"

She nodded, giving him a sad smile.

"Listen, if you want to go to another place," he begun, but she hastily interrupted him by wildly shaking her head.

"No no no, I love to go to the beach with you."

They both were silent after that and they spent the rest of the drive trying to avoid eye contact. When Jane finally pulled into a parking lot, they were both relieved. Lisbon got out quickly and stretched her legs, enjoying the feeling and the salty smell of the ocean breeze.

she didn't notice her consultant getting out of the car until he was standing behind her, softly ushering her forward with his hand resting on her shoulder. She felt herself relaxing and carefully stepped a bit closer, unsure of his reaction. But instead of stepping away as if he was burned, like she suspected, he pulled her closer in a swift movement and wrapped an arm around her slim shoulders.

"Don't want you to be cold," he explained when she looked up at him in wonder. Not that she minded, though. Not at all.

A/N I'll try to continue soon, but no promises! :)


	6. Chapter 6: Tea boxes

**A/N Hi everyone,  
Please tell me if this story is becoming too cheesy or anything. I suffered from a little bit of writers block, but I tried my best to make this into something good.**

**To the guest that reviewed and mentioned Jane as a mad hatter: that would be an awesome AU. If someone is feeling up to that; let me know ok? ^^  
**  
Xxx

They were walking over the beach, talking about small things like going to the beach as children and about what their colleagues would be doing right now, when Jane suddenly let go off her hand and took a few steps back.

"Wait here," he told her with the same glint in his eyes that he usually had before doing something meddlesome and unnecessary, and took off in the direction where they'd come from. She wondered where he was going and how long this… thing was going to take. The brown haired agent wasn't going to wait for a long time, who knows what could happen. Maybe he would show up with another pony, or worse… She didn't want to know what other kind of animals he could come up with.

Though she didn't really mind waiting at this place. The sun was already setting and a fresh, salty wind was blowing in her face, making the temperature just right. The waves made a calming, rushing sound and Lisbon could hear absolutely nothing else except for the occasional call of a seagull. Her job had been so hectic lately, that this felt like she was taking a break from the normal world. She took a look around and saw a blonde haired figure coming her way.  
Took him long enough.  
She squinted her eyes and was relieved to notice that there wasn´t any animal following him. Good.

Instead, she found that he was carrying a big picnic basket.  
"A Picnic?" She asked him as soon as he got within earshot . "Seriously?" Jane smiled at her and put the basket down when he reached her.

"Nope. Guess again."

Lisbon stared down at the basket in horror.  
"Please please please tell me there is not a snake in there."

"Nope. Guess again." Thank god. She breathed out in relief.

"I have no idea. Tell me."

"Nope. You'll have to try first."

"God Jane, tell me what's in the damn basket!" She tried to grasp it, but he pulled it out of her reach just in time.

"If you don't guess one more time, you'll never know," he teased, in a tone that Lisbon always thought was incredibly annoying. She tried to take it one more time, but the blonde man was faster. His eyes shone when he held it up above her head, just a little too high for her to reach. Lisbon tried to remember what had possessed her when she had agreed to this date-thing and planted her hands in her side.

'Fine. Fine, okay? I'll guess. It's a cirque. There. Can I see now?" She tiptoed and pulled on his arm, but Jane was still stronger. Did that man work out or something? And if he did, when the hell did he have time to work out? He was always lying in the attic, sleeping in her office or out working some case in a not-exactly-legal way. Now that she thought about it, he never went to do fun, social stuff either. Or at least, not that she knew about. It was surprising that he actually knew the way to the beach so well…

"You are not guessing at all," the consultant pouted, taking a step back and making sure that the basket stayed out of her reach. "Try again!"  
Was he serious? She squinted her eyes at him and started thinking.

"It's… Things to use on a beach?"

"Hm…" He pretended to take that into consideration. "Sort of. Define 'use'."

"Like a bucket or a ball, or a kite?"

"Do I really appear as a little kid to you?"

"Do you really want me to answer that question?"

He wisely kept his mouth shut and lowered the basket.  
"You're wrong though," he told her after a moment.

"About what?" she asked confused, wriggling the basket from his grip. "My guess or you being a kid?" Jane suddenly looked very serious and took a step closer. He brushed a stray hair out of her face and Lisbon suddenly felt her mouth go really dry. He leaned in and put his hands on her shoulders. Lisbon shivered when he brought his mouth to her ear.  
"Both," he whispered softly and took the basket out of her hand again. He released her as suddenly as he'd grabbed her and turned away. The CBI agent stood frozen for a few seconds, trying to register what just happened. After she came back to herself, she felt like she was made a fool off. And that didn't make her happy. At all. She crossed her arms at Jane, who'd promptly sat down on the soft sand. That surprised her a little, so she threw him a confused look. He patted down on the ground next to him. The message was clear.

"Hell no," she told him immediately. The dark-haired woman was wearing one of her favourite jeans and besides, she was not going to pretend that everything was ok after that stunt he just pulled.

"Come on Lisbon," he pleaded. "Sorry? Please?"

There must be something wrong with her, the woman thought to herself when she lowered herself on the spot next to her nosy and obnoxious consultant.  
"You gonna tell me what's in the basket now?" After all, her curiosity won it from her annoyance and she found herself reaching out for it. This time, he let her. She opened it and gazed down.  
"…Seriously Jane?"

"It's a tea party!" he exclaimed cheerfully and started to take out different boxes of tea out of the basket. With them came a light blue blanket that he spread out for them to sit on and an actual tea pot. Teresa was just about to ask him how he was going to prepare the tea without hot water, when he somehow got a thermos can from out of somewhere and started pouring steaming hot water into the tea pot.

"What the hell is up with you and those tea parties? What makes you think that I like tea that much? Oh, and how is this different from a picnic?" she asked skeptically. Jane avoided eye contact and pretended not to have heard. Instead, he gave the box a little push in her direction.

"What flavor do you want?" he asked with so much enthusiasm that she couldn't help but to give in to it.

"What do you have?" In the basket were enough tea boxes to feed an army and she picked up a purple one. "Caramelized pear?"

"Oh, you better not take that one," Jane quickly pulled the box out of her hand. "That one tastes disgusting. But to answer your question: I have pretty much every flavor there is." He looked so proud that Lisbon wondered if he honestly didn't see what was wrong with this picture.

"You bought every flavor in the store just for this?"

"Hmmm."

"Why?"

"So you have something to choose from, of course. It's a tea party…" For a second Lisbon thought that she could see a different expression on his face, but no, she must have seen it wrong. Because why would he feel that way when they were having fun like this? The dark haired woman put it behind her, and rummaged through all the tea boxes, but deep inside she knew damn well what emotion she'd seen on Jane's face just before his smile slid right back into place.

Disappointment.

Would he be feeling that disappointed if she didn't like the tea. She considered that for a moment and decided to appreciate the effort that he was making a bit more.

After a few minutes they both got a steamy cup of tea. Jane chose the mango-passion fruit flavor like he always did and Lisbon had settled with white blossom tea. She didn't know the flavor and she had thoroughly thought about getting the caramelized pear just to piss him off, but in the end she couldn´t. He was so excited about getting her to drink tea that she just couldn't destroy that.  
Besides, she found that she liked sitting on the beach, feeling the sand between her toes and the wind blowing through her hair. The ocean was beautiful and the tea actually tasted really nice, so she felt herself slowly relaxing more and more. Before Teresa even realized it, she was lying with her head on his shoulder, trying to ignore the voice in her head that kept asking her what the hell she was doing. The CBI agent didn´t really mind anymore. No matter how messed up he was, and no matter what kind of issues she had, she just didn´t want to stay away from him anymore..

"Jane? Why did you want to go on a date with me?" she asked him sleepily. Her consultant looked down at her in surprise. He pretended to think about that for a moment.

"Well, why not?"

She looked up and smirked.

"That's the reason?"

"Why only annoy you during work when I can also annoy you out of work?" he answered with a wink, but she was not buying it.

"Jane…"

"Just because you looked like you needed it, alright?" he told her honestly. "Plus, you said that you wanted to do something fun for a difference."

That made her frown. When had she… oh, when she was talking about going out dancing with the team? How did he change that into 'going on a date with Jane'? But she had to admit that she liked it. She liked sitting here with him and bickering with him, keeping the talking light and small. And yes, she indeed had wanted a break from everything. He was just looking out for her and being a good friend like the one she never would have thought he'd be. Looking out over the ocean, she didn't regret her decision one bit.

Lisbon tried telling herself that this was the way it should be; that this was not something romantic and that it never would be. How was that gonna work anyway?  
She was not hurt about that part.  
Definitely not.

…Maybe a little, though.

But it was for the best. And she was happy like this, being here with him. Trying to ignore the pang in her chest, she leaned into him a little more and smiled.

"Thank you, Jane."

"Anytime, my dear," he whispered. He picked up a small, white shell and blew off the remaining sand. He offered it to her with a small smile. "For you.. For your collection. You didn't have this kind yet, right?"

"Right. Thanks."

So strange how she suddenly forgot all of the reasons why she always thought like he was such an irritating person. The CBI agent admitted to herself that even Patrick Jane could be really nice sometimes…

"So how about that hot tub…"

"Jane!" Never mind. That man was never going to change.


End file.
